Throw-Stuff-At-The-Wall Thursday

As we jump all over the place let’s start with –

The Are You Calvin or Are You Hobbes Quiz.

Alison Doherty:

I didn’t have the best introduction to Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson that ran between 1985 and 1995 … I thought it was about an annoying, naughty boy with a stuffed tiger and not a lot else … I was wrong, big time. There is incredibly depth in the concepts being explored in these short comic strips, from the purpose of art to the scientific method to the meaning of life.

Answer a series of questions to find if you are more Calvin or more Hobbes.

Someone took the quiz and found that:

You are Hobbes: a cynical, sarcastic stuffed tiger with a secret heart of gold! Some people call you a pessimist. But you prefer the word realist. Things are not great on this planet. So your plan is to keep your head down, follow the rules, and just do your best to get by among all the chaos…

 

Sad Eyes Sam and Sadly Sadly Sanders by Jack Cole

As we near the 70th anniversary of the end of The Spirit Sunday supplement (October 5, 1952) we travel back in time (in more ways than one) as Paul C. Tumey looks at the last story of The Spirit ghosted by Jack Cole (1944) and compares it to a Jack Cole Plastic Man story five years later.

 

Jack Cole’s final SPIRIT section story, Sad Sam’s Last Laugh (Spirit Section June 25, 1944), was an early version of Sadly-Sadly (Plastic Man #20, November 1949), one of his best stories, and once again presents us with his patented mix of gruesome death and funny cartooning…

While Cole, like any great artist, returned to his themes and story settings over and over, this story is thus far the only instance documented in which he recycles a story concept. The character of Sad Eyes Sam would be reborn about 5 years later as Sadly-Sadly, in one of Jack Cole’s masterpieces…

From a 2010 episode of Cole’s Comics.

 

Insane Charity Bike Ride 2022

Famed cartoonist John (Dork Tower) Kovalic again rides for charity:

Every year, this ride helps the FairShare CSA Coalition bring fresh, organic food from Dane County, WI, farms to low-income families in the Madison area.

The Army of Dorkness (you all, you amazing people) are responsible for raising nearly half of the FairShare CSA Coalition’s funds, every year. So here we go again!

Aside from making me cycle a very long distance (with a duck on my head) …I mean, helping an amazing charity…here’s what you can receive, in return:

1)   Each and every pledge will get a brand-new Coloring Book PDF. It’s been while since I’ve done one of these, so there’ll be lots of cool stuff in it…

And the rewards increase as the the donation amounts increase. Details here.

 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Book Sale!
August 19, 2022 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

If you are anywhere around Columbus Ohio Friday there is a can’t-miss event.

Swipe through to see a small sampling of the variety of duplicate books from our collection that will be available to purchase. The sale will take place from 4-7pm in our lobby, and we are accepting both cash and card. The museum galleries will have extended hours that day from 1pm-7pm so be sure to check out the exhibits while you’re here!

ALL ITEMS RANGE FROM $2 – $20!

 

Sports Cartooning Returns to Lubbock

Lubbock commentator and cartoonist Jay Leeson is developing a series of cartoons highlighting Texas Tech football in the spirit of those created by legendary Lubbock Avalanche-Journal cartoonist Dirk West.

They will be featured in the Avalanche-Journal and lubbockonline.com.

 

Movie Review: Slumberland

Winsor McCay’s 1905 comic is an underrated, fantastical story that has inspired a new fantasy film in 2022, Slumberland starring Jason Momoa.

One aspect that will be maintained in the film, directed by Francis Lawrence of TheHunger Games, is McCay’s love for experimental visuals. In an interview with Ben Mortimer of Den of Geek, Lawrence expresses that he works hard to make his projects timeless and visually fantastical, which is the perfect match for McCay’s forward-thinking story. Nemo’s dream guide, Flip, will also be maintained, played by Jason Momoa; that promises to be an extremely fun performance.

MovieWeb on Winsor McCay and Slumberland.

 

All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End by Charles Johnson

Long before he became known as an acclaimed novelist, essayist, distinguished professor, author of 26 books (including his novel Middle Passage, winner of the 1990 National Book Award), and as a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Charles Johnson was a serious—which is to say, very funny—gag panel and political cartoonist.

This 11-page excerpt features gags from 1975 until the present. All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End by Charles Johnson will be published by New York Review Comics in October.

Publishers Weekly Previews the new Charles Johnson collection.

 

Bill Morrison Interview

He went on to attend College for Creative Studies and graduated in 1981 with an illustration degree before working at the art and design company Artech in Livonia in the early ’80s doing graphic design work for manuals. Eventually, he found success working on projects like Disney’s Cinderella, The Simpsons, his original comic Roswell, Little Green Man, and more. He also co-founded the company Bongo Comics in 1993.

 

One of the Disney properties you created artwork for included the controversial phallic imagery on the1990 VHS box for The Little Mermaid, correct?

Yes, I was the artist on the VHS box art. All of the stories and urban legends that came out of that were very entertaining. I used to go into comic shops, and I would hear people talking about it and just be kind of a fly on the wall listening to whatever the story was, and it kept growing, like it was like a game of telephone…It was totally unintentional, just a fluke. I think the very first version of the story was that the artwork was done by an artist who was being fired so his last act of defiance against Disney was to paint this phallic image in the video box art…But of course, none of that was ever true.

Hour Detroit interviews Bill Morrison.

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